An electronic device typically comprises a variety of user interface components that enable users to interact with the electronic device. User interface components in portable electronic devices need to fulfill several requirements, such as compactness, suitability for mass manufacturing, durability, and ease of use. Increase of computing power of portable devices is turning them into versatile portable computers, which can be used for multiple different purposes. Therefore versatile user interface components are needed in order to take full advantage of capabilities of mobile devices.
Navigation keys are a type of user interface component used in many mobile devices. A navigation key may be a multi-way key which is adapted for entering information that relates to directions. The user can indicate different directions, such as up, down, left, or right, by pressing different parts of a navigation key. Directional information may be linked to various user interface operations, such a scrolling, navigation, or moving a cursor.